Breathing for Two: Luce Irigaray and the practice of

pregnancy yoga
The mother gives her breath and lets the other go; she gives
the other life and autonomy. From the beginning, she passes
on physical and metaphysical existence to the other.
(Luce Irigaray Between East & West)
French Feminist philosopher, Luce Irigaray, explains that
during pregnancy women have the unique opportunity to
breathe for another. When pregnant, we give and sustain life
within ourselves. Pregnancy is the only time in which we may
cultivate our breath for another and our breath gives the gift of
life to our unborn child. A pregnancy and birth inspired by
conscious breathing holds the promise of an articulation of our
subjectivity as woman. The cultivation of our breathing during
pregnancy and the use of breath during birth provides us with
the possibility of being born to our own life in the act of giving
birth to another. Conscious pregnancy and birth enables us to
discover our autonomy as women in the face of the
pathologising of our pregnant body. Birthing consciously brings
us to the threshold of our being and plunges us into the depths
of the unknown, with only our breath and being to guide
us. The practice of pregnancy yoga is a powerful tool for
women to connect with pregnancy and birth as a transformative
experience. To use Luce Irigaray's words, the cultivation of
breathing during pregnancy and birth might be a 'personal
renaisaance' of sorts. Irigaray writes, To breathe by myself
allows me to move away from a socio cultural placenta. Thus
I can begin to be born, to no longer live from the breath of
anyone ... To be born to my life ... to not need to break in
order to discover or rediscover what is, what is beautiful, what
is true (Irigaray, 2002: 5).
My belief that the practice of pregnancy yoga can be a
transformative one (with the right teacher) is based not only on

the work of Luce Irigaray, but upon my own experience of the

practice of yoga during pregnancy and stories from women
who practiced pregnancy yoga in my classes. My suggestion
that pregnancy yoga could be a transformative practice might
be met with a great deal of healthy scepticism. Women's
bodies are commonly medicated, measured, anathetisized,
cut and deemed incompetent during pregnancy and birth.
Pregnancy and birth have become pathologies in modern
society, a sickness which requires the constant attention of an
obstetrician who uses his/her tools of monitoring and
measuring and weighing to deem how well a pregnant woman
and her unborn child is 'progressing'. In such a culture of
objectification and sublimation of the mother's role and wisdom
regarding her body and the development and health of her
unborn child it seems unlikely that women may have the sort of
experience I am referring to. The possibility that we might
connect deeply with ourselves and undergone a radical,
spiritual transformation is not generally associated with pre
natal yoga! However it became evident to me through my own
pregnancy and birth and through sharing the journey of
pregnancy with my students that it is indeed
possible... Personally, during the birth of my son, Jamie, my
mind and body extended beyond the boundaries I generally
exist within. My breath guided my baby out, and while I was too
tired to feel it at the time, the final breath which brought my son
into the world was one which was the culmination of a
somewhat difficult to understand process in which I became
'ME'. Something had shifted, my breath had guided me to a
place in which I realised my true nature, different, strong, life
giving. My partner commented on how our closeness as a
couple changed at that point. No longer could we believe in the
illusion of togetherness, completing accepting this
transformation and valuing my becoming as a woman, and now
a mother, we negotiated a new way to experience a
togetherness informed by our difference. Essentially I realised,
if we can give birth in a conscious way, where we make the

decisions for our own bodies we can discover ourselves as

women, powerful and strong. When I gave birth in the quite
space of aloneness, with just my partner present, a dark room
and a midwife I became myself. This experience, I soon after
realised is rare. In days past women gave birth with other
women - midwives and doulas - who guided them through this
intense and transitionary rite of passage to motherhood. Now
pregnancy is a fearful experience for many women. The
possibility of discovering their inner strength and power is
difficult in the context in which they birth. However pregnancy
yoga, informed by a philosophy of active birth can begin to
provide an alternate perspective on pregnancy and birth.
Rather than pregnancy and birth being a sickness, through the
practice of pre natal yoga with a suitably qualified instructor
women can truly discover themselves from a place of
awareness rather than fear. This in turn, allows women to face
the joys and difficulties of motherhood, with equanimity and
fearlessness.
Copyright Dr Jean Byrne 2010
Dr Jean Byrne
jean@yogaspace.com.au
www.yogaspace.com.au